Skip (est. in 2017) was a
San Francisco-based company which provided a
scooter-sharing system in several American cities. The company was founded by Matt Tran, Mike Wadhera, and Sanjay Dastoor during
Y Combinator's winter 2018 class.[2] Skip differentiated itself from competitors by making sturdier scooters with larger batteries, offering instructional classes, and working with cities before rolling out.[1] It was acquired by Helbiz in 2020 and filed for
Chapter 7 bankruptcy in August 2021.[3][4]
History
Skip was founded as Waybots in winter 2017 by the creators of
Boosted Board, as higher-end competitor to other scooter-sharing systems.[5][1]
In May 2018, Skip raised a $6M seed round of funding.[1] In June 2018, the company raised an additional $25M in its
Series A round.[6]
In December, 2020, Skip was acquired by competitor
Helbiz.[7][8]
Areas served
In February 2018, then Waybots launched in its first city,
Washington, D.C., as part of a pilot program.[9]
At the end of August 2018, the city of
San Francisco gave Skip and
Scoot permission to operate dockless scooters in the city.[10] In an email sent out October 15, 2019 to its members, Skip announced that their scooters "will no longer be rentable as part of SFMTA’s Powered Scooter Share Program for 2019-2020" effective immediately, because the scooter batteries had a tendency to catch on fire. Skip has reportedly requested an appeal of SFMTA's decision, in order to continue operations in San Francisco.[11]